Nellie Doneva/Reporter-News
The building committee of Rising Star has picked this house on State Highway 36 to be the first demolished, with assistance from the Rising Star ISD Beautification Project. Rising Star City Council member Ben Childers estimates that the city has 50 to 60 homes that need to be removed.

Abilene Reporter-News

RISING STAR — Dilapidated homes, an aging population and students lacking funds to attend college motivated Sarah Childers and others to establish the Rising Star ISD Education Foundation last spring.

“It was a huge whim,” said Childers, the foundation’s executive director. “We had a concerned citizens meeting in April on what needs to be done for the town and the community as a whole, which includes the school. There was discussion on how to get industry in, and how to support the school’s longevity, and beautification for the whole town.”

Rising Star, a farming community founded in 1874, is about 60 miles east of Abilene. Its population has decreased from 1,204 in 1980 to 835 today, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Childers said 78 percent of the town’s population is on a fixed income and that 80 percent is older than 60. Of 189 students enrolled in the Rising Star Independent School District, 77 percent receive free or reduced-price meals, she said.

SCHOOL BOARD BLESSING

After receiving the school board’s approval, Childers spent $850 to start the foundation and apply it with the Internal Revenue Service. With the help of two large donations, fundraisers, plus plans to secure endowments, the foundation will fund:

The Central Texas Junior Debate League for junior high students,

The Rising Star Collegiate Program,

The Rising Star ISD Beautification Program.

The ambitious beautification program aims to help local high school students earn money while improving the town’s look. Childers said that in the fall sophomores through seniors who volunteer 100 hours a year to help Rising Star residents could receive a $1,000 scholarship.

“Some residents couldn’t even afford the gas if we parked a truck in front of their house, and they don’t have the physical means either,” said Childers, who moved here two years ago from North Carolina. “A lot of them have health problems, but these sweet individuals do not need to be overlooked. These kids have the backs and the muscles to keep going, plus these kids need the scholarship money because they are college-bound.”

Childers said that in the fall people can list their needs on a sign-up sheet at City Hall. Needs might include help mowing a lawn or removing an old refrigerator from a yard. Students will work in pairs with an adult supervising.

“The kids are going to dabble in different trades, like carpentry, like assisting someone whose porch is falling in, or plumbing and landscaping, and they might find they have a knack for something,” Childers said.

“It is important to show that you are willing to help; to go out and help people in need,” said Lawrence, who participates in basketball, tennis, cross-country, stock shows, FFA, 4-H and UIL academic teams. “It can also help you in college and teach kids responsibility.”

Other Big Country school districts have education foundations, but Childers said she’s unaware of any that focus on helping cleanup the community like Rising Star’s foundation will.

Senior Kinsey Nall won’t be able to participate in the program because it doesn’t start until the fall, but she said she likes the idea.

“I am impressed because someone is actually taking time to make Rising Star look better and that this foundation will help kids to be able to work toward scholarships,” said Nall, a National Honor Society member who plans to attend Cisco College. “By helping your neighbors, you are actually working for your scholarship instead of just filling out a paper. It’s better to help people than not to help.”

DILAPIDATED HOMES TARGETED

City Council member Ben Childers, no relation to Sarah Childers, said Rising Star has an “abnormally high number of dilapidated homes,” about 50 to 60 he estimated.

“It is easy to understand that a person looking to open a business in a small community would much rather spend their time and money investing in a town that has a sense of charm and cleanliness, as opposed to being riddled with dilapidated housing and unsightly residential areas,” said Ben Childers, who is a foundation board member and on the town’s revitalization committee. “It is common-sense really. How can we expect others to invest in our future if we, as residents, allow our own town to fall apart before our very eyes?”

Ben Childers said the beautification program could change attitudes. “I feel that once our residents see these houses being removed and a real cleanup effort under way that they will be more likely to take charge and do the same to their own properties,” he said. “After all, what is the point of having a beautiful home if it is surrounded by houses that appear to be straight from a war zone? With a little planning and a substantial amount of elbow grease, I think this town can be steered in an entirely different direction — something we have been needing for a very long time.”

Students will also get more hands-on opportunities as the program includes adding a greenhouse to the high school. Agriculture teacher Tylan Long has already started developing a curriculum, and students in the program will be growing native species of plants to be used in beautification projects.

“Greenhouses will be a central component for my horticulture curriculum,” Long said. “Agricultural education, in general, is centered on ‘learning by doing.’ With a lab environment, my students can take what they learn in the classroom and actually use it. The students ... will benefit from gaining marketable skills, personal responsibility and pride from the beautification project.”

DEBATE PROGRAM

Through a large anonymous donation, the Central Texas Junior Debate League began in June. It has seven students on the team with three of those competing, Sarah Childers said. Students from May and Cross Plains schools are also on the team.

“You have these kids from 1A Title 1 schools going against 4A and 5A prestigious schools, and they’re holding their own,” said Sarah Childers, whose 13-year-old daughter Orion is on the team. “I get ecstatic when I watch these kids. Debate is a foreign concept in this area because they do not have it around here in a 30-mile radius.”

The Rising Star Collegiate Program is the foundation’s third program. It will provide underserved high school students an opportunity to earn free dual college credit from Ranger College.

“Some (school districts) do partial, and some do whole tuition and books, and we are the only ISD in the area that I know of that pays for the whole thing,” Sarah Childers said. “All we do is charge (parents) a refundable $200 deposit where, if their child passes, they will get their money back.”

Ben Childers said the collegiate program could be a “real game changer.” “With these opportunities being available to them while still in high school and free of charge, I feel that there will be numerous kids that will now achieve a college degree that would otherwise simply have not,” Ben Childers said. “In this regard, the ISD foundation will be able to make an immediate and dramatic impact on these underprivileged students’ lives in a way that could change their family tree forever.”

STUDENT ‘BUY IN’

Superintendent Max Thompson said one of the best aspects of the education foundation is that it provides hope for a better future for the school district and town.

“We are trying to foster a sense of community and ‘buy in,’” Thompson said, “so that students might go off for college and/or training and look forward to coming back to their hometown where they have already worked to improve as high school students and then hopefully live, work and become involved in the community.”

Sarah Childers said Rising Star and its school district are at a pivotal juncture.

“We can forget about falling back on anything else if the ISD closes its doors, then that’s going to be it for the town,” she said.

If things work out well with the Rising Star ISD Education Foundation, Sarah Childers believes other school districts and towns may follow Rising Star’s lead.

“We’re not the only community like this in Texas, and if we can serve as an example for other communities just like ours, I honestly think this is worth it,” Sarah Childers said. “Rising Star, Texas, is worth saving. And if people would like to donate to these programs and help this community out, we welcome donations, endowments and volunteers because we have awesome things going on here. We have faculty that go above and beyond for the children and great community members.”